That question was batted around by Farmington city council members at their Jan. 3 meeting, with some council members calling for the city to take a tough stance on property owners who leave their stores vacant or in poor repair.

The discussion stemmed from the Dec. 19 meeting, when Mayor Bill Galvin asked what was being done to address the vacant Hershey’s ice cream store, located just south of the Grand River/Farmington Road intersection. It’s sat empty for four years, piled with equipment, its windows streaked and dirty, as the property owner continues to renew its annual lease to the owner of Rumi Persian restaurant next door.

Kevin Christiansen, director of economic and community development, said the city is taking the property owner to court to force him to bring the building up to code. But council member Greg Cowley thought it’s taken far too long. He said customers on the patio at his family’s downtown pub, John Cowley & Sons, look at the building across the street and ask him what’s wrong with Farmington.

"We cannot sit for another summer and watch a store sit there empty with nothing but garbage piled up in the window,” he said.

City manager David Murphy said property maintenance really isn’t a major issue in Farmington. Out of 423 businesses registered in Farmington in 2016, only eight are “problem children,” he reported.

Farmington is dealing with all those properties, Murphy said, using the tools at its disposal — like a property maintenance code and ordinances against blight and dangerous buildings. Those in violation are required to either fix up the property or go to court. He said building inspector John Koncsol works with property owners, even those the city is suing, to get buildings up to code.

It’s a long process, and not as simple as — for example — putting up curtains or painting or papering the windows to hide stockpiled equipment from public view. That’s a code violation in itself, because it creates a potential public safety hazard.

When it comes to vacancies, Murphy said, there’s not much the city can do. Whether to rent a space or keep it empty is the landlord’s prerogative — and Murphy said there are some that “just aren’t good partners.”

Cowley and council member Jeff Scott figured there must be some financial incentive to keeping properties vacant, like a taking a loss and writing it off on taxes. “Right now, there’s got to be some incentive to have a dark property — otherwise, why are they doing it?” Scott wondered.

The Hershey’s and Rumi properties are both owned by Dave Mihajlovski, who formerly ran a Baskin Robbins in the Hershey’s space. Currently, he’s not offering the vacant store for rent, Christiansen said.

It’s not due to a lack of interest. Within the past two years, Mihajlovski turned away two businesses who wanted to rent the Hershey’s storefront. In late 2015, Jennie Neu-Sipkay of Neu Kombucha went into Rumi to ask for the landlord’s contact information and was told he wouldn’t lease her that space because it was the restaurant’s storage (a use not permitted under city code). She couldn’t get any more information, so she opened her store on Grand River, behind The Rocking Horse embroidery shop.

Not long after, in February 2016, brothers Jacob and Majid Khalil looked into Hershey’s as a possible location for MI.Mosa restaurant. The landlord never got back with them, they said. MI.Mosa opened about a block down the street, in the former Dimitri’s space on Farmington Road.

Cowley said he wants the council to pass what amounts to an occupancy ordinance, which would penalize property owners who keep their storefronts empty. “I want something that forces them to market the property,” he said. “We need to be in court with more of them, whenever we can.”

Scott stopped short of calling for an ordinance, instead throwing out ideas for how to “make it less comfortable” for owners of vacant properties — like mandating additional police patrol near those areas and increasing the landlord’s assessment to cover the cost.

City attorney Tom Schultz called Cowley and Scott’s ideas “extreme regulation” and said he’s “not sure that’s Farmington’s philosophy.” He said it’s a “basic right on the part of the property owners” to decide how to use their space.

“I don’t know of too many communities that go toward this idea that you want to punish somebody to the point where they put anybody in their building, just to avoid some sort of penalty for not having their place occupied,” Schultz said.

Not all council members were calling for tougher regulation. While Cowley said his suggestion was meant to safeguard other downtown properties, Steve Schneemann said it could produce the opposite effect: landlords bringing in “super low-end, cheap rent tenants ... people we didn’t want."

Sara Bowman, who served on the planning commission for seven years, said she doesn’t want Farmington to become known as the city that strong-arms its tenants. Bringing in businesses is a long process, she said, “not a snap-of-the-fingers deal” — but one that’s working, as evidenced by Fresh Thyme in the Downtown Farmington Center and the redevelopment at the old Kmart location near Grand River and Freedom.

Galvin said it’s “really easy to have a knee-jerk reaction” to the Hershey’s situation because of its prominent location, adding that the city has seen “a lot of success stories” with incentives rather than stronger enforcement. After the streetscape went in on Grand River, he said, business on the north side of the street really took off.

A second streetscape was planned for Farmington Road, but due to funding issues, it didn’t get done. So while businesses like Browndog and Cowley’s and Farmington Brewing have patios and a fence and shrubs out front, places like Hershey’s and Rumi and Page’s still have sidewalks that run right alongside a busy intersection. Implementing projects like the Farmington Road streetscape could make it more appealing for landlords to invest in the city and redevelop their properties, Christiansen said.

Schneemann agreed. “I think we need to make our city vibrant and attractive,” he said, “and then demand will go up for spaces, and businesses will want to locate here.”

A view of the vacant Hershey's store from the patio at Cowley's.(Photo11: Maria Taylor)